Four Leaf Clover
by Spiralling-Down
Summary: James' constant mission to gain Lily's affections seems to be going nowhere... Perhaps what he really needs is a bit of extra luck. Several drabbles taking place between James' fifth year and his death. Rated T just because I'm paranoid!


**Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling.**

**Author's Note: This is written for headagainstthesky's 'The Titles Challenge!' on HPFC. I was given the title 'Four-Leaf Clover' and the pairing of Lily and James, and I had to write a story to go with it.**

* * *

4th May 1976

It was a hot afternoon, which seemed to mark out the beginning of summer, and James Potter was sitting idly by the side of the lake in the Hogwarts grounds. His OWLs were going to start soon, and he'd decided he should grab the opportunity to relax while he still had the chance. He let his best friend's voice wash over him as he picked at the grass growing on the bank of the lake.

"All I'm trying to say," Sirius was telling him earnestly, "is that Snivelly's hair would look a lot _better_ if it was pink."

"You reckon?" said James lazily.

"Yeah, just imagine – you'd be able to see every little bit of grease so much better!"

"I did not need that image in my head" shuddered James, returning to shredding the grass with more vigour in an effort to cleanse his mind.

"Nobody's hair is going pink," said Remus, closing his book with a snap and looking over at James and Sirius. "What are you doing to the poor grass, James? What did it ever do to you?"

Peter laughed loudly from where he'd been sitting watching the conversation, but James just ignored them both and started on a patch of clover instead.

"Hey, look, this one has four leaves," he said, pulling the clover in question out of the grass and holding it up for his friends to see.

"Congratulations, you're going to get an O in Herbology for sure," said Sirius, rolling his eyes.

"That's good luck," Remus told him.

"How can a plant be good luck?" said James, smirking in amusement.

Remus shrugged. "Just Muggle folklore."

James was about to throw the clover back onto the ground – either that or pull its leaves off – when he saw Lily Evans sitting across the lake with her friend Marlene. She glanced up and rolled her eyes, obviously noticing him staring at her. James's hand twitched instinctively towards his hair to ruffle it up a bit, but he managed to suppress the urge, and… it was strange, but… he could have sworn he saw her lips twitch upwards into a slight smile.

_I owe you one, clover_, he thought, looking down at it and grinning lopsidedly.

After a few seconds, a hand swiped across his field of vision. "Earth to Prongs. You're starting to look like a love-sick troll," Sirius informed him.

"Thanks a lot, mate," James laughed.

He started to get up, picking up his bag in one hand, and then looked down at the clover again. He wasn't entirely sure why he was bothering, but he picked it up, cast a quick protective spell over it, and dropped it into the pocket of his robes.

* * *

18th October 1977

"Go on, Evans, please come to Hogsmeade with me!"

James reached his hand into his pocket and let his fingers graze the top of the clover he always kept there. It was a bit of a habit now, really. Get up, put on your glasses, dress, dig out the four-leaf clover. He had no particular motivation for doing it, to be honest, but for some reason he always did. He supposed it had started during his OWLs, when he had brought it into his practical Divination exam, just for a joke.

_James held the four-leaf clover in his hands, talking to it reverently under his breath. He lifted it to his lips, going as far as to give it a light kiss. A cough came from the desk in front of him, where his bemused examiner sat watching, waiting for James to finally pay attention._

"_If we could begin the exam?"_

"_Well, the thing is," said James, with a hopeful air, "seeing as I am demonstrating manipulation of the fates to help me pass Divination, I reckon that I deserve an excellent mark at the end of it. It may not be in the syllabus, but I think I'm showing excellent initiative, just like a true Seer."_

"_I see…" replied the examiner, narrowing his eyes. "We'll just have to wait and find out how successful you were, won't we? Now please sit down."_

_James had only really done it so he could have a bit of a laugh with Sirius afterwards, so he shoved the clover back into his pocket and took his seat for the test. _

_The clover remained there for the rest of the day, right up until some time after the written paper for Defence Against the Dark Arts, which had taken place that afternoon. When it had ended, James and his friends had wandered up to the lake, James tossing around an old Snitch. There, they had met Snape, and James, all too keen to have something interesting to do, had begun duelling him._

_So that was why James was standing there, with blood running from a long cut on his cheek, pointing his wand fiercely at Severus Snape._

"_Locomotor Mortis!"_

_Snape's legs snapped together and he fell, landing heavily on his side. James' mouth twisted into a smile, but it was wiped from his face when he heard a high, female voice from behind him._

"_LEAVE HIM ALONE!" It was Lily._

"_Ah, Evans, don't make me hex you," said James sadly. Why was it that every time he jinxed Snape, Lily seemed to be just a step away?_

"_Take the curse off him, then!"_

_Grudgingly, James removed the leg-locking curse, and Snape stood up gingerly, brushing himself down and glaring at James._

"_There you go. You're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus-" said James tauntingly. _

_He turned away from Snape slightly, digging his hands into his pockets. His fingers came into contact with a tiny, four-leafed plant, and then-_

"_I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!"_

_Everyone stood frozen in shock for a second. James was suspended somewhere between fury and disbelief; he had a good mind to curse Snape again, perhaps with something a bit worse than a leg-locking spell this time. But Lily got there before he could say anything._

"_Fine. I won't bother in the future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus."_

_Her voice was icy cold and detached. In that moment, James knew that Lily's faith in her former best friend had been broken, most likely forever. He couldn't help it – amid his rage at Snape, a slight flutter of happiness made it into his stomach. Perhaps he had a chance with her after all…_

Admittedly, Lily had made it perfectly clear that she loathed James too, right there and then, but at least she didn't seem so keen on Snape any more. James had carried the clover around with him ever since. Anyway, he needed a bit of luck right now, while he waited for Lily's reply. Perhaps this would be the first time he would go to Hogsmeade with Lily Evans at his side…

"How many times, Potter? No!"

Damn. Maybe not. "Come on… Why not?"

Lily swung around to face James and gave him a ferocious glare. James faltered under her gaze, but resisted the temptation to back away.

"Because, James-"

Oh, first name terms, that couldn't be a bad sign…

"-you are an arrogant, childish-"

All right, perhaps this could have been going better.

"-little prick, who acts as if he's so much better than everyone else just because his father's the head of the Auror office and he's a half-decent Chaser. And on top of all that, you go out of your way to insult my friends! So no, I am not going to go out with you."

James winced. He'd really been trying to be more mature this year as well! He hadn't made fun of Lily (too much) and he'd managed to resist cursing Snape even once since they'd got back to Hogwarts. He'd hoped that being made Head Boy might have done the trick, but apparently not.

He let his eyes drop sadly. "OK, I'm sorry."

Lily looked vaguely confused. "I didn't know that word was even in your vocabulary," she said, giving an amused smile.

James' hopes lifted slightly as he saw that, and a bit of his confidence returned. He opened his mouth, about to crack a joke, but then he caught himself. He needed to prove to Lily that he _had _changed.

He pulled the four-leaf clover out of his pocket and fixed Lily with an uncharacteristically serious look.

"Remus told me a while back," he said, "that clovers with four leaves are lucky. To Muggles, anyway. Is that true?"

"Yes…" Lily still seemed puzzled.

"Well, it doesn't work," he said. His voice came out sounding more bitter than intended. "I've been making my best effort to improve, but I still can't seem to throw off the whole 'conceited jerk' thing. I haven't even called Snape 'Snivellus' this year, let alone jinxing him, but even with this 'extra luck'" - his fingers sketched quotation marks in the air - "you won't give me a second chance."

"James…"

"I suppose I deserve it."

He was shocked to hear his voice catch, but he pretended not to have noticed. He dropped the clover on the ground and turned away.

"James."

"See you, Lily."

"JAMES POTTER." James turned back to see Lily standing with her hands on her hips. She rolled her eyes at him. "Give me a chance to speak, will you?"

"OK…"

"I'll go to Hogsmeade with you. Maybe I haven't been quite… fair." She smiled. "This can be your chance to prove yourself."

She bent down and picked up the four-leaf clover, then crossed the short distance between them and handed it back to James. James, almost without thinking, threw his arms around Lily's neck. He felt her stiffen in his embrace, but he just grinned, keeping a tight hold on her.

"Potter, this is _not _a date, and I am _this _close to hexing you right now," she growled.

James ignored her. This was a mistake, but even his subsequent trip to the Hospital Wing to have his new purple boils removed from his face did very little to put a dampener on his mood.

* * *

28th July 1978

James was pacing back and forth in his living room. His hands were clasped together tightly behind his back, a fine gold chain wrapped around his fingers. He was waiting for his girlfriend, Lily, to arrive, and he felt like his heart was beating at around three times its usual speed. Probably wasn't particularly healthy, that.

James heard a pop outside the house of someone Apparating and sprang at the door, his stomach jumping up somewhere into the vicinity of his tonsils. There was a knock, and he took a deep breath, calming himself down, before shoving the chain into his pocket and opening the door.

"Hello, James," smiled Lily.

"Hi, Lils."

She looked breath-taking. She was wearing a light blue summer dress, cut off around her mid-thigh, and her dark red hair was falling softly around her face. James found his eyes magnetically attracted to her bare legs, and began to feel very appreciative of the sweltering July heat.

"Stop gaping, you idiot," Lily laughed, hitting him gently on the arm.

"Oh. Yeah. Come on in."

For about fifteen minutes they sat on the sofa, chatting about the Order, the end of their Hogwarts years and Sirius' latest near miss on his flying motorbike. (An old Muggle woman had seen him fly over her garden, and somehow mistaken him for a pterodactyl, which both James and Sirius of course found absolutely hilarious. There had been some very strange stories in the Muggle tabloids for a few days, but nothing that could be connected back to Sirius.) Finally, James plucked up the last of his courage and turned to face Lily.

"D'you remember the first time I asked you out?"

Lily scrunched up her face in concentration. "Wasn't that just after the Sorting Ceremony when we were eleven?"

"Oh yeah. Well, I mean the time you accepted. For the first Hogsmeade weekend in Seventh Year."

"Oh, that." Her face cleared. "I remember."

"I showed you a four-leaf clover." James reached into his pocket and pulled out the chain. "Look, I got it made into a necklace."

He held it out so it dangled in front of Lily. A small pendant hung from the chain; it was a ball of glass with the clover suspended in the centre and a delicate casing of gold around it.

"You kept it for all that time? James, it's beautiful."

James looped the pendant around Lily's neck and stepped back.

"I'm going to need all the luck I can get," he said, his heartbeat racing again.

He waved his wand. Something came speeding through the air, and James caught it with his Quidditch player's reflexes. He knelt down in front of Lily.

"Lily Evans," he said. He opened up his fist to reveal a gold ring. Set into the band were a diamond and two sparkling emeralds, which were the exact same shade as Lily's eyes. That was a nice touch, he thought. Very romantic. "Will you marry me?"

This time it was Lily who flung her arms around James, beaming widely. "Of course I will!"

"Ha. I told you you'd be Mrs Potter some day," smirked James, unable to resist making the comment.

* * *

31st October 1981

James sat on the sofa with a smiling Harry and Lily. His wand was held in front of his son's face, emitting puffs of coloured smoke, and Harry was giggling and clapping his hands happily. James really wanted to be out with the Order, fighting to bring down Voldemort, but… well, that wasn't an option. Looking at Harry, who was trying to catch a wisp of blue smoke with a pudgy hand, James' heart swelled with a mixture of pride and love. If he had to hide away from the war then Harry and Lily were the only people for whom he'd do it.

"I should put him to bed," said Lily. "It's getting late."

James let another puff of smoke out of his wand, which twisted itself into a sad face, hanging in mid-air for a moment before vanishing as Harry swiped his hand through it.

"I'm serious! He'll never get to sleep at this rate," Lily said with a laugh.

"All right, all right," grinned James, throwing his wand down onto the sofa and leaning over to kiss Lily on the cheek.

He stood, picking up his son, and swung him around in the air for a second. James pressed his face into the fuzz of jet-black hair on the baby's head then handed him over to Lily, who jiggled him up and down in her arms. James stretched lazily, and then suddenly there was a crash from the hallway; it sounded like the front door had been blown off its hinges. James' stomach plummeted and his felt his throat clog with fear.

_Please let this be Sirius' idea of a joke, please_, he thought desperately, tearing out of the room.

It wasn't Sirius.

Lord Voldemort stood in the doorway, his wand in his hand.

_No… No! Peter told him? No…_

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off-"

James' hand moved unconsciously to his pocket, where his wand was normally kept, but it wasn't there. Why, why did he leave it on the sofa? He cursed himself angrily as Voldemort advanced towards him, wand outstretched, a faint smile of what looked like amusement curving his lips.

Then Lily was behind him, sprinting for the stairs with Harry held tightly into her chest. For one agonising second, their eyes met in a gaze full of unspoken pain, fear and determination. And then Lily was gone, running not for her own life, but for Harry's. James' eye caught a flash of light from a pendant around her neck, in which he knew a four-leaf clover hung, and he turned to face Voldemort, straight-backed and proud once more.

_If there was ever any luck in that thing, we could use it now._

Green light flashed, and James crumpled to the floor. And inside the glass orb of the pendant, the four leaves severed, their protective enchantments broken with the death of the caster.

* * *

**Eh, it's not one of my best. I've never written a story about the Marauders or Lily before, and I'm not sure that I got their personalities exactly right… I've also never written romance before, so I'd really appreciate some tips or constructive criticism. Just drop me a review! :)**


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